Poison frontman rocks for a good cause

Monday

Jul 8, 2013 at 10:28 PMJul 8, 2013 at 10:29 PM

By Craig S. Semon, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

OXFORD — It was nothin' but a good time and it was all for a good cause when platinum-selling rocker Bret Michaels played an energetic and intimate concert for a lucky few in the banquet hall of a local restaurant Monday night.

"It's a great cause because you get to play music, so people are having fun," the Poison frontman and American Diabetes Association spokesman said from his tour bus minutes before his show. "When they're having fun, they're donating money. They're donating their time. It raises money and awareness."

Mr. Michaels — who was diagnosed with Type I, insulin-dependent diabetes when he was 6 — performed for the Barton Center for Diabetes Education at J. Anthony's Italian Grill, 206 Southbridge Road.

The 50-year-old rocker and reality TV star, wearing a cowboy hat and bandana, earned $640,000 for the American Diabetes Association when he won "Celebrity Apprentice 3."

Monday night, approximately $10,000 was raised for the Barton Center's camp scholarship fund. In addition to Mr. Michaels and his band playing at a reduced rate, the band Chyldz Play played for free, and J. Anthony's donated the venue.

"One of the most important things that everyone forgets, until we find a cure for this, you better manage it or you won't be around very long," Michaels said.

"It's a very, very deadly disease and I meet so many people who have it and that's why the fight is so important. I get to play music which I love, which has gotten me through some of the toughest times in my life."

Mr. Michaels, who learned how to play the guitar at a diabetic youth camp that his mother and he helped form, said he was the only kid in school who had diabetes growing up.

"I've been a human pincushion since I was 6, five shots a day. That doesn't count the blood tests or let's just forget the brain hemorrhage, heart stop, and all that other stuff that wasn't related to diabetes," Mr. Michaels said. "All that aside, you know what it is for me. There's a fork in the road as a diabetic and it's as much mental as it is physical. You have to mentally stay in the game and that's what we're trying to get people to do. If you don't take control mentally, physically you're going to have a tough battle."

With an all-encompassing, eager-to-please enthusiasm and a winning stage personality, Mr. Michaels opened with the head-banging rockers "Talk Dirty to Me" and "Look What the Cat Dragged In," followed by lively back-to-back covers of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," "Good Songs, Great Friends" and Loggins and Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance."

Mr. Michaels performed "Something to Believe In" and "Unskinny Pop" and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" and Sublime's "What I Got" before closing out with a Poison songs, including "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" and "Nothin' but a Good Time."

Lynn A. Butler, the executive director of the Barton Center for Diabetes Education, had nothing but praise for Mr. Michael.

"It means more kids coming to camp. And we have 50 percent of our campers applying for scholarships," she said. "Literally, they (Michaels and his band) took one of their days off in the middle of their long summer tour to come to do a small performance for 400 people. It's incredible."